The leader of a French mercenary group has revealed a military plan to invade Qatar. The plan was put in place by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in 1996 after the failure of the coup attempt in Doha that year.

Paul Barrell, the mercenary leader, said he was hired to execute the plan. He made the comment for the first time while talking to Al Jazeera journalist Tamer Al-Meshal in an exclusive meeting aired on the weekly series “What’s Hidden is Greater".

He said the UAE had provided him with considerable support for the operation and hosted him and his team at the InterContinental Hotel in Abu Dhabi, where many weapons were stored. Barrell and his team were also given official UAE passports to facilitate their movements away from sight. He stressed that the current Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed - who was then Chief of Staff – was the one who granted them the passports.